A FORMER football club owner and his wife are at the centre of a row with neighbours and walkers after building a fence on a ‘road’.

Andrew Connolly, who lives with wife Claire in Ightenhill Park Lane in Ightenhill, Burnley, said the fence was on a private road, with public access, and had been put up for ‘health and safety reasons’.

But people living nearby complain they can no longer park on the road when they go into Hagg Wood and some have even used social media to vent their anger, threatening to tear the barrier down during the night.

Burnley Central West county councillor Tony Martin is working on behalf of residents to get the fence removed from the bottom of the lane, known locally as Park Lane.

He said: “He has not realised how many people he is inconveniencing by constructing this fence.

“I will be raising this issue immediately with Councillor John Fillis, the cabinet member for highways and transport, and I will make sure that this fence is removed as soon as is humanly possible.”

Mr Connolly installed the fence posts partly in the road itself, after he and his wife grew fed up with people parking there.

Resident Adrian Sutcliffe, 44, who lives on Wellfield Drive, said: “Hagg Wood is renowned for its bluebells.

“I went there to take photographs of the bluebells a couple of weeks ago, and then I went back at the weekend and there was a fence there.

“I’ve reported it to the council because a lot of people park there.”

Terry Letch, Burnley footpaths officer, Burnley and Pendle Ramblers said: “This fence does not infringe on any footpath, so it is not specifically a problem for the ramblers, but whoever put the fence up has encroached onto the road surface itself.

“I have taken a picture and I will be e-mailing this to the county council and asking the highways department if whoever has done this has broken the law.”

But Mrs Connolly claimed her husband was entitled to build the fence because they owned the land on that part of the road.

She said: “The public are allowed a right of way but it’s a private road.

“We pulled the gates off when my husband built the barn, but people keep parking in our garden so we’re going to put the gates back up.

“People even park overnight and go hunting.

“We’ve been really lenient with them, but we’ve had problems.

“We’ve done it for health and safety reasons.

“I’ve got two young children, and you would never forgive yourself if something happened.

“I had an accident on my back and the ambulance couldn’t get down here.

“If we had a fire, the fire engine wouldn’t be able to get down.”

Late last year, Mr Connolly, of Hunters Oak Barn, was disqualified from acting as a company director for five years after an investigation by the Insolvency Service revealed he took almost £81,000 from company funds meant for creditors after his business, Connolly Demolition Limited, went into liquidation.

Alan Capstick, the county council's highways manager for Burnley, said: "We're always grateful when people bring things to our attention if they think there might be any kind of problem on the highways.

"This has only been reported to us recently and we'll only know whether there's an issue once we've had the opportunity to inspect the location."